Building community through giving

Working at Esri Canada is all about building community. We help build stronger communities not only through our work, but also through giving. Read how our employees give of their time, talent and treasure through United Way to help local communities build a sustainable future.

Working at Esri Canada is all about building community. By helping more than 10,000 customer organizations solve problems using GIS, we contribute to improving the economy, environment and society. In addition to our work, we help build community through giving—an integral part of our corporate culture.

In the past five years alone, our employees have contributed more than $1 million dollars to local charities through United Way, thanks to the generous matching gift provided by Alex and Mary-Charlotte Miller that triples employee donations. This year, we’re donating more than $225,000 to United Way, which will go a long way in delivering youth development programs, reduce poverty and build healthier and more resilient communities across the country.

So, how do we nurture this spirit of giving? It’s simple. We make giving fun.

If I were to sum up our recently concluded 2015 United Way campaign activities into three themes, they would be: fitness, fashion and food.

Employees who wanted to break a sweat while giving back joined the CN Tower Stair Climb, the Wii bowling challenge in our Toronto office or our charity golf tournament in Ottawa, which brought together over 100 business partners, associates and customers to help raise funds. Those who wanted to enhance their mental fitness participated in the office-wide bingo and sharpened their powers of estimation by guessing how many jelly beans were in the United Way jar. Foodies revelled in the GIS Day Bake Sale, Tim Hortons Coffee & Donut Cart Day and Samosa Day held at our offices.

See more photos of our fundraising activities in our United Way album.

This year, we encouraged our employees to bring out their inner fashionista for our Halloween costume contest and ‘Think Pink’ campaign, which aimed to help raise breast cancer awareness. For every team that dressed up in pink, the company donated a specific amount to United Way. Check out this story map of our ‘Think Pink’ contestants.

Giving of our time, talent & technology

In addition to giving financial support, our company provides technology and services to help United Way continue their important work. Esri Canada partnered with United Way Ottawa, University of Ottawa and Ottawa’s health sector to create the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study (ONS). Esri’s ArcGIS platform was used to better define neighbourhoods in the city and investigate the relationships between location and community outcomes. As a result, United Way Ottawa and their stakeholders now have an effective system to analyze the strengths and challenges of each neighbourhood and prioritize projects that will deliver the most significant community impact.

Watch this video to learn more about our work with United Way Ottawa.

For our commitment to community and to United Way’s community campaign, United Way Ottawa presented Esri Canada with the Community Impact Award last spring. It’s a great honour that’s testament to our company’s commitment to helping our communities build a sustainable future. We share this award with our employees, customers and partners whose tremendous efforts and generosity make our United Way campaign a success year after year.